The present invention relates to a tire squeezer for tubeless tires to facilitate seating of the beads of the tires during initial inflation. The invention is particularly concerned with such a squeezer wherein a tire may be rolled into place within the squeezer within the necessity of manual lifting.
The prior art relating to the field of the present invention experienced most of its development during that period in the middle-1950's when tubeless tires first became popular. Some of the earliest efforts simply employed a band which was wrapped around the tire and these efforts are exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,815,804; 2,818,913; and, 2,968,343. Other efforts employ individual clamping shoes which engage the tire on diametrically opposed sides and these efforts are exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,712,850 and 3,422,875. A more recent effort employs a means for blowing air around the periphery of the bead of the tire and this effort is exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,320.
The prior art is typified by the requirement that the tires being processed be lifted into place and by the limitation that only one tire can be handled at a time. Much of the prior art, and particularly the old band-type clamps, were additionally typified by the requirement that the band be wrapped around the tire being processed, clamped, and ultimately released.
Other disadvantages of the prior art devices are that they are not readily adaptable to the handling of tires of different diameters and provide no means whereby a tire being processed may be readily rotated to position the valve stem of the tire at a convenient location.